


Wrong Vessel

by Fangirl1177



Series: True Vessels or Vessel anyway [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: I fiddled slightly with angel physics, M/M, Sam is both Michael and Lucifer's True Vessel, True Vessels are the angels soulmates, Vessel shenanigans, alternate season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-05 02:16:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17316182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl1177/pseuds/Fangirl1177
Summary: True Vessels are complicated. They are millennia in the making and the work of coincidence as much as anything or anyone else but when they are they are tied to their angel with an intricacy few understand and unbreakable by anyone. The lack of understanding means that when you try to direct who True Vessels will be things go wrong.Which is how Sam Winchester ends up becoming the True Vessel of both Michael and Lucifer.Problems ensure and the only person who seems to be enjoying themselves is Gabriel.





	1. 1st

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, just a note to start I have taken liberties with angel physics and how alternate universes work, nothing crazy but change none the less and explained in this first chapter.

**1st**

_'And it is written, that the first Seal shall be broken when a Righteous Man sheds blood in Hell. As he breaks, so shall it break.'_ \- Alastair, On The Head Of A Pin

Time does not exist.

Space-Time, however, does. It is a rolling mass of reality that weaves and fuses together everything so each plane of existence can connect, twisting with each thought to form new planes, mostly copies of the original planes where small actions change the course of history until they are unrecognisable from each other. Sometimes they are new brought to life by hope and prayer and the imagination of all who believe in it, and God, if He’s feeling creative. But Space-Time is not infinite. It is bordered by impenetrable walls and shaky locks and when it reaches the edge folds back onto itself pressing down so the planes of existence are closer together and occasionally bleed through or merge.

This means that more often than not the outcome is favourable to whoever is guiding the change and inconvenient situations with few outcomes are avoided although the impossible happens with surprising regularity.

Sam Winchester died at 7:36 on the 30th of April 2007 and Space-Time split, in most planes his soul ascends to Heaven where little happens until it is returned to his body, although there are exceptions. In some he stays on Earth as a spirit or is guided to a different afterlife and rarely returns to his body immediately causing a few problems. In fewer still he goes to Hell, either for his tainted soul or because of hard held grudges.

So when Azazel grabbed Sam’s soul tight and plunged down into Hell Space-Time shuddered and split, then when the first Seal was broken it caused shock-waves that rippled through the past and the present and the future and splashed harmlessly against the wall surrounding it next to a Lock.

Not that anybody noticed the behaviour of Space-Time the people in the universe those particular planes of existence formed had more immediate issues. Such as the impending Apocalypse.

Then again, the breaking of a Seal was new, very few recognised it for what it was although everybody knew something had changed.

The Archangels knew of course, but Lucifer in his Cage saw it start to open, felt the ripple of victory it accompanied, and he crowed; and Gabriel on the Earth continued on as if nothing was wrong all while making plans to disappear; and Raphael in Heaven ordered that preparations for the apocalypse begin in earnest; and Michael disappeared to try to open a connection with his True Vessel.

They all forgot to mention to the choirs of Heaven and the hordes of Hell that the Righteous Man who starts the apocalypse need only be virtuous of Michael’s line and upon breaking the First Seal would become Michael’s True Vessel.

It was also never clarified _whose_ blood must be spilt in Hell to break the First Seal and Sam Winchester is a Hunter; stabbing Demons is his job, a small thing like dying isn’t going to get in the way of that. What dying does get in the way of, however, is throwing ability and in the chaos that follows a lot of blood is spilt without ever knowing who spilt it: from the demons, from Sam himself and from the souls on the racks surrounding them, and physical torture is not the only way to break a person.

Words work just as well, especially from somebody you trust. The 46 hours that Dean hesitates to make a Deal to bring his brother back is 7 and a half months in Hell.

The problem is that Lucifer’s True Vessel is forged not in one less-than-shining moment but in many over a lifetime and Sam has been groomed for it since birth, as he is told by Jessica Moore when fighting for his soul in Hell.

Not that he remembers any of it when his soul is returned to his body and he wakes up confused and disorientated but having stopped the apocalypse at the moment of its inception.

Not that anybody told Michael or Lucifer.

 


	2. 2nd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Lucifer stage left.
> 
> (In which I try to explain why I ship season 5 Samifer before Lucifers psychotic break from Lucifer's perspective.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is shorter than intended but gets the point across. The second half of this is mostly from 5.03 Free to be Me and You and all quotes are from that episode although only the end of the conversation is present, you've all (presumably) seen the show so I don't need to rehash it, this is true in later chapters too although canon will diverge from now on so it's less of a problem, you'll also know that there are references and talk about suicide in this conversation. There are also references to Season 10/11 that you can probably glaze over if you haven't seen it.
> 
> Also I'm trying to explain intangible concepts from an archangels point of view so if I don't explain things well tell me and I'll reword it but I think I've got the point across.

**2nd**

**Lucifer POV**

**23rd August 2009**

Sam Winchester’s soul was exquisite, Lucifer decided as he stared at Sam’s dream construct self, surrounded by the warmth of his soul. If all humans had been like Sam Lucifer’s life might have been a little easier. Unfortunately, they hadn’t, and Sam was just special as his True Vessel – his soulmate.

Sam’s love, however, Sam’s love was blinding in its intensity as was fitting of the brightest angel in heaven and sung with hope that Lucifer hadn’t seen in aeons. It wound through his soul like a snake and Lucifer wanted to follow it, to cocoon Sam in his grace and feed off the waves of strong emotion, the place on his grace where the Mark once was pulsed at the thought and Lucifer knew then and there that he would do anything to keep the look of adoration on Sam’s face there.

Lucifer fell in love with his vessel at that moment because with him laying bare his soul, intentionally or not, the goodness and hope and love and faith that made Sam Sam filled a part of him he had forgotten about in his quest to feed the Marks emotional Hunger, the part that made him an angel; the part that made him his Father's son.

Sam was (not quite) him before everything bad and Lucifer knew as he tugged on the ties that bound them together that he would do anything to ensure that he stayed just as unalike to him as possible and that he would try to be worthy of that love.

But first Sam’s love, that if Lucifer needed to breathe would have called breath-taking, because as bright and pure as it was and as much as Lucifer wanted to pretend otherwise it was not directed at him.

“I love you Jess.” Lucifer didn’t let his pain show even as Sam turned his back on him. “God know how much I’ve missed you too.”

Lucifer did not lie to himself, however much he wanted to, and Sam was his True Vessel; his soulmate; his other half, he would not lie to him either no matter his original intentions to get it over and done with.

So he broke it to him as gently as he could.

“Because you freed me.”

And he hated himself a little more as the love disappeared and his soul curled up to protect itself and fear, just as strong, just as radiant, just as mouth-watering to his Hunger, made itself known.

But fear while good was a different sort of good to love, the same way pizza was good but so was chocolate gateau and he’d been living of pizza for long enough that the difference was startling.

And Lucifer wanted it back.

He couldn’t force it. He was an angel he knew love couldn’t be forced, it was how he fell in the first place and he knew love came not from change in the person doing the loving but the person being loved at least in the beginning.

So he started small: he did not lie, he did not hold back something which could hurt later if left to fester, and he made his intentions clear. He removed Sam’s reasons to fear him.

It went as well as he thought it would because no matter how perfect Sam seemed he was human and had been socialised to fear him and there were subjects that his human mind could not comprehend until they happened, and humanity feared what it did not know.

“I want to give you a gift. I wanna give you everything.”

“I don’t want anything from you.” Sam snarled back before the words were even fully out of his mouth and they stood in silence for a moment drinking each other in. Sam could feel how right his soul was with Lucifer’s grace, Lucifer knew. He wouldn’t be looking so vulnerable otherwise.

“I’m so sorry Sam.” He kept his voice gentle and his mannerisms to match. “I really am but Nick here,” he gestured to his dream construct because humans liked non-verbal communication more than verbal, “is just an improvisation. Plan B. He can barely contain me without spontaneously combusting.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam shifted, and Lucifer knew he was putting the pieces together, his words, the response of his soul, and coming to a conclusion he didn’t like. Lucifer stood slowly and held his hands out pacifyingly in front of him.

“Why do you think you were in that chapel?” For each step Lucifer took towards him Sam took one back until they stopped and he pointed at Sam with his hands together in a gesture of prayer. “You’re the one. You’re my Vessel. My True Vessel.” The fear that hung in the air between them thickened with new horror and became almost as tangible as the love from before, the lingering traces of that love souring the fear into a toxic mix Lucifer wanted gone.

“No.” Sam whispered. The word almost tripping from his tongue without his permission, an automatic response.

“Yes.” He nodded as well, just to get the point across because humans could be very slow when in shock.

“No. That’ll never happen.” Sam shook his head.

“I’m sorry but it will. I will find you,” He took a step forward and Sam sidestepped so they were facing the opposite direction, “and when I do, you will let me in.” He wanted to comfort him, not that Sam would let him in this state, so he gave him the facts. “I’m sure of it.” He left out that Sam was sure of it as well because Sam could feel the tie between them just as well as he could.

“You need my consent.” Sam grasped at the one part of the conversation he could control.

“Of course. I’m and angel.” He folded his arms and let Sam lead the conversation.

“I’ll kill myself before letting you in.” Lucifer’s grace twisted at the thought and he answered trying to hide how unpleasant the thought was.

“I’ll just bring you back.” He sighed taking back control of the conversation. “Sam. My heart breaks for you. The weight on your shoulders. What you’ve done. What you still have to do. It is more than anyone could bare. If there was some other way…” He trailed off and shrugged because he did not know what he would do because he still wanted Sam. “But there isn’t.”

It would be an uphill battle to find Sam’s love and that would make the victory so much sweeter and make him hold on to it so much more.

“I will never lie to you. I will never trick you. But you will say yes to me.”

“You’re wrong.”

“I’m not.” Lucifer smiled. “I know you better than you know yourself.”

“Why me?” Sam begged, and the fear dissipated to be replaced with soul deep exhaustion and Lucifer gave him the only answer that made sense to him.

“Because it had to be Sam. It always had to be you.” Then he retreated to give Sam space to think but couldn’t persuade himself to let go completely and he held onto the warmth of his soul by a thread even as he felt Sam wake up. He couldn’t find it in himself to regret it when the thread wavered a little time later and he poured healing energy down it, directing Sam’s latent physic ability where to go.

The fear was still there, faintly felt through the bond that was rapidly fading to its natural state of barley-felt, but neither the thread nor the bond wavered again.

It wasn’t technically a victory but, hey, baby steps.


	3. 3rd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Michael, stage right.
> 
> (In which you have the first installment with my obsession with the Archangel Michael.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this Michael is different from Season 13/14 Michael partly because this isn’t psycho!Michael from an alternate universe but sort-of-good!Michael from the original (which makes me wonder if alternate!Lucifer was the good one) who we’ve only ever seen for a grand total of about 15 minutes and because I actually wrote this in November when stuck on my other Michael fic, which I’m gonna start posting when this is done, before I actually watched seasons 12 and 13, which I binged over Christmas after finally getting time to catch up. I will be watching season 14 on the 27th though and ignoring that as well afterwards.
> 
> Also this Michael always wants to be written in present tense for some godforsaken reason so a few things may have slipped through the net.
> 
> This is set after 5.06 I believe Children are Our Future, the one with Jesse the baby Antichrist..

**3rd**

**Michael POV**

**22nd September 2009**

“That was very honourable of you.” Sam jumped in shock, drawing his gun and spinning around in the same move, his quick pacing forgotten. Michael smiled sadly at him ignoring the gun in his hands and taking in Sam’s radiant soul now he had his attention.

It was dulled by self-hatred, scared by experience and encased by a cage of faded demonic power. It outshone the lower choirs of angels in its beauty and power and the knowledge that after the attempt at demonic corruption he had rebuilt himself.

“How did you find us?” Sam demanded, voice steady and soul quivering.

“I have not.” Michael told him honestly. “This is a dream, the only real things here are us and because of your warding’s there is still a… wall between us disallowing me to follow your conscious.” Sam’s stance didn’t change but his soul stopped quivering.

“Right.” He intoned. “And who are you?”

“I am Michael.” Michael took a moment to enjoy Sam’s surprise before the gun disappeared and he slumped, losing the defensive pose and glaring at him through narrowed eyes.

“Michael?” Sam repeated.

“Michael.” He confirmed. “I apologise for the delay in coming in person, I understand you’ve had a few difficulties with my, ah, representatives, but I’ve been busy recently.” Sam raised an eyebrow. “I am very entangled with the running of Heaven.” He expanded. “With the apocalypse starting there is a very sudden and very imminent chance that I may die, and I need to ensure that Heaven will continue running.”

“Okay and what are you doing in my dreams, now?” Sam asked.

“Like I said it was very honourable of you, to try to help the boy even though he is destined for evil because he is young enough to change.” Sam blinked at him and he took a step forward, brushing further against his soul. “But then I suppose that is why you are Righteous.”

“What?” Sam stared at him, Michael frowned.

“Was this not explained to you?” He tilted his head. “It would explain a lot.” He mused. “The first Seal of the apocalypse is broken by a Righteous Man shedding blood in Hell who is of my line. While the Seal is being broken they become my True Vessel as it ensures that not only their body, but soul is strong enough to hold me.” He took a final step, reached out and cupped Sam’s cheek whilst sending pulses of calming presence to his soul. “Do not despair,” he told deaf ears, “it was not your fault. No one can hold out against Hell when they are determined to break you, and Hell wants nothing more than to break you. It was an oversight on my part that allowed you to enter Hell in the first place and for that I am truly sorry.” Sam’s pulse, both real and imaginary, picked up as he shook his head, pupils wide.

“I – that can’t – Dean’s the Righteous Man! He’s the one who didn’t deserve to go to Hell. I’m Lucifer’s Vessel, I have demon blood in me, I dunk it willingly. I’m evil and unclean and –” Michael pulled Sam down so that his head was on his shoulder and wrapped his shaking soul in his grace as the stress from the last year broke him apart. He was careful to ensure that the dream remained strong around them, however, Sam’s senses were lacking and direct grace on soul contact without context would only serve to drive him towards insanity as he tried to reason with the unreasonable.

“Oh Sam.” He breathed. “Do not compare your suffering to your brothers. You break in different ways and the demons were lucky to find yours first, the shorter time means nothing when you broke because you care. The demon blood in your system is sabotage. It means I will be weakened when we first consummate in order to help heal the scars it has left and is leaving on your soul. It was not your fault and I will help as soon as I can although I am willing to wait seeing as I am sure this is a shock to you. It does not make you evil and to be unclean would need a more metaphysical substance than blood. As to our brothers? Dean deserved Hell no more than you did but he chose it and my Father deemed Free Will important in this world, and it is our actions that define who we are. Being my brother’s Vessel does not make him, or you if you were, evil. It just makes him more susceptible to it. True Vessels are not made at birth but through the strengthening of the soul, otherwise anyone would be a Vessel since human bloodlines are so diluted after so long.”

Sam nodded, and Michael could feel his mind whirling as it sorted through the information he had given, slower than normal due to his emotionally drained state, then he focused on a memory and withdrew from him, heart guarded.

“Zachariah told us that Dean was your Vessel.” He said, gauging his reaction. “And he was very clear you needed his consent fast. That was why they pulled him from Hell after he broke.” It was Michael’s turn to stare at him.

“The order to rescue Dean from Hell was given once it became clear that Lucifer would not do so, we decided that it must mean that Lucifer wished for his Vessel to be readily at hand when he was released, and I make it a habit of mine to make Lucifer’s life as inconvenient as possible.” He explained.

“And Lilith being the Final Seal?” Sam demanded. “Why did we need to be there?”

“You didn’t.” Michael frowned at him. “Lilith need only to die, she could have easily done that herself, although I suppose she thought it would be poetic if you were there.”

“That isn’t what Zachariah said.” Sam snapped, and the dream tilted as if Sam was figuring out what inside it was real.

“I think we have already established that somehow Zachariah has received bad information.” Michael pushed slightly to stabilise the dream. “It would be easier to assume that he has given you bad information. It explains why there was a bad relationship between you.” Sam gave a short bitter laugh.

“Bad information.” He snorted, “and the torture for consent had nothing to do with the ‘bad relationship between us’.”

“You cannot torture somebody for consent.” Michael reached out instinctively for Sam’s soul, and flinches when he flinches back, although he is understanding. “That is not consent.” He stared at Sam desperately for a minute. “I will never hurt you, I want you to be happy, you have been hurt too much.” They stand in silence for a moment before Michael breaks it, unwilling to let his True Vessel believe himself abandoned and lesser.

“Show me your memories of what Zachariah has done and of Lilith’s death. I shall ensure judgement is given if all is not right.” Surprise flickered across Sam’s eyes. “And I shall unlock your memories of your death, to show you how strong you are and why you are my True Vessel.” He ignored Sam’s flinch this time and determinedly walked towards him to hold his cheek, and soul, again. “You are worthy of so much more than you believe, let me show it to you.”

Sam opened and closed his mouth for a minute. The uncertainty heavy on his soul.

“Okay,” he croaked finally, “okay.” Michael smiled and does not hesitate as he leaned forward and placed a kiss upon his cheek. He used the moment afterwards to pull the memories from Sam’s conscious and take a copy with him keeping his promise and waking him up fully rested.

His grace glowed with the contact with his soulmates soul and he smiled to himself in delight.

Then he watched the memories.

Then he raged.


	4. 4th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter Gabriel, stage ceiling or something.
> 
> (“They named him after the angel Gabriel in hope that he would be a nice person. He’s not. He’s an arsehole.” My friend, paraphrased, introducing me to her older brother.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set in 5.08 Changing Channels.

**4th**

**Gabriel POV**

**20 th November 2009**

TV Land was great. Until it wasn’t.

Gabriel had been doling out ironic judgement for millennia. He’d flown under the radar for so long he sometimes forgot who he was. Nobody had ever suspected who he was or even that he was more than who or what he said he was. Nobody until the Winchesters had decided that he was an angel _based on how he complained about his family._

There was a joke in there somewhere about just deserts.

He wondered if it was his Father or karma the automatic universe balancing system. He could at least yell at his Father. If they ever met again, that is.

“So which one are you?” With the holy oil and rib warding’s in the way Gabriel couldn’t read what Sam was thinking from his soul the way he usually did but his face gave away quite well how much he was not a happy camper. “Grumpy, Sneezy or Douchey?” For a moment he considered lying or blowing out the holy oil with his pagan magic and just living with the aftermath. He was quick, he’d be able to leave before any angels or demons showed up but the magical backlash would show it was him and his Witness Protection would be blown to smithereens the apocalypse would up its stakes, not to mention with the True Vessels ready for the taking.

“Gabriel, okay? They call me Gabriel.” He tried to keep his voice flat.

“Gabriel? The Archangel?” Sam went from not a happy camper to on the bus home in point two seconds flat.

“Guilty.” He flashed a smirk.

“Oh thank God.” Both he and Sam turned in surprise to look at Dean who was running his hand through his hair and grinning at Sam. After a second understanding lit up in Sam’s eyes too and he also started to slowly smile. Gabriel had never realised how unnerving it was to have two Winchesters grinning at each other over his head.

“Not usually the response I get anymore but thanks anyway.” He butted in making them turn back to him and Deans face to twist.

“What? No! We have questions about True Vessel’s, and we’ve been looking for somebody who will answer them without making it seem like it’s Heaven on Earth for ages.” Sam turned to look at him expectantly, eyes shining.

“I can’t help you there, it is.” He shrugged and held out his hands in a ‘what can you do’ gesture.

“What.” Dean frowned at him.

“Heaven on Earth. That’s the point of a True Vessel.” Gabriel rolled his eyes. Honestly what were his brothers doing? If they didn’t know that no wonder they were resisting. “An Archangel’s True Vessel? You’re like the Pacari Chocolate of Vessels. The Ferrari of Vessels. And that’s with a different angel. The angel you’re matched with? That’s a high you’ll never want to come down from because you’ll feel complete.” He made sure to look them both in the eye while giving his little speech.

“Right, well what makes a True Vessel.” Sam shifted uncomfortably but blurted out the question like he hadn’t been listening to a word Gabriel had just told him.

“Depends on the angel. Trying to see if it’s reversible? It’s not. It makes you soulmates and soul entanglement isn’t something you can really untangle. Nothing you do will make you any less Lucifer’s True Vessel or make you no longer Michael’s.” The look the Winchesters exchanged made him wish he could see their souls.

“That’s the problem.” Sam dragged out turning back to him.

“What?” Gabriel looked between the two of them waiting for them to get to the point already.

“Michael says I’m his True Vessel.” Gabriel blinked at them as he quickly rearranged his world view.

“Interesting change in dynamics but the point still stands.” He shifted and added a note of finality into his voice. “I just got who will be with whom wrong. One of you still going to die because the other’s the True vessel of the other and they’re still mad about betraying each other.”

“That’s also the problem.” Dean gave a small smirk.

“How’s that a problem?” Gabriel glared at him. “You’re Michael’s True Vessel, he’s Lucifer’s. The older/younger brother symbology’s thrown out the window, but it hasn’t stopped it because _nothing_ can stop it.”

“That problem is that Lucifer also thinks Sam’s his True Vessel.” Dean stared at him like he was trying to peer into his Grace.

“That’s not possible.” The words were out of his mouth before he could figure out a way to convey them better.

“That’s what we thought. But it’s true.” Something like hope curled around his Grace at Sam’s gentle words and he swallowed it down before replying.

“You know what. Let me out of this Holy Fire, tell me everything and I’ll see what I can do about your Vessel problem.”

“First you’re gonna bring Cas back from wherever you stashed him.” He rolled his eyes at Dean and glanced over at Sam to give him his sympathy for putting up with Dean’s Castiel bullshit and snapped his fingers. Castiel appeared behind Dean glaring at him in every dimension possible, at least he presumed, he couldn’t see a few of them but he was definitely glaring at him in the few he could see.

“Cas you okay?” Dean asked at once. Castiel took a moment to glare at him some more before replying.

“I’m fine.” Oh yeah, Gabriel recognised that tone no matter how long he’d been away from home. Apparently, Dean did too because he turned back to Gabriel and glared at him too. He lowered his hand and looked back to Castiel.

“Hello Gabriel.” He grinned at him. He had a reputation to maintain with the little ones after all.

“Hey Bro, how’s the search for daddy going? Let me guess. Awful.” He snapped because he couldn’t resist, it had been a while since he could vent. Castiel glared at him even more and he turned back to Sam because he was the most reasonable of the bunch and because he was the one he was going to help. “So, you gonna let me out so I can help you or what?”

Sam sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pacari Chocolate was apparently the 2012 winner of the 1st International Chocolate Awards in the category of dark/origin bars. 
> 
> Yes there are International Chocolate Awards.
> 
> Also by the time I post next week each chapter will have an image of what the characters look like, I would have done so today but I fell asleep so they're not finished.


	5. 5th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean stomps around the stage.
> 
> (I watched season 14 and remembered that on a Drama Queen scale of 1-10 Archangel's are a 15. This has been corrected appropriately.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so it's technically Sunday but this is 3x as big as the last few chapters so...
> 
> And images. Those will happen definitely by next chapter because next chapter's the last and I don't have a choice. Fear not however as I have plans for spin off sequels, namely Raphael – suffering younger sibling dealing with older sibling pinning. Also I'm going to check this again when I wake up so sorry if there's something really bad that's been missed in editing but I should have everything. 
> 
> Enjoy.

**5th**

**Dean's POV**

**23 rd November 2009**

“Are you fucking joking?” Dean crossed his arms and glared down the sixth most powerful being in the universe. At least he tried to anyway, Gabriel rolled his eyes at him and muttered in Enochian under his breath.

“It’s the best plan there is.” Gabriel collapsed backwards onto the dining table chair next to where Sam was sitting, his laptop open tracking omens announcing Lucifer, at least until Gabriel showed up and explained his super sucky plan that’s what he’d been doing.

“If you think I’m going to let some sort of Archangel meet and greet happen inside my brothers head-” Dean growled.

“They won’t do anything.” Gabriel threw up his hands and almost hit Sam in the face. Sam dogged and went back to looking at the Archangel with not outright horror at the idea. No wonder Gabriel was pushing it. “The moment they both show up they’ll know that Sam’s also the others True Vessel, no soul touching needed,” both Dean and Sam shuddered at the memory of Gabriel’s ‘True Vessel Test’, “once they both know that Sam is both their Vessel they’ll know that they can’t fight and boom no apocalypse. That was the end goal, right?” Dean ignored him.

“But what if-” He started.

“I think it’s a good idea.”  Sam interrupted.

“Sammy-” Dean growled.

“It’s going to happen eventually.” Sam snapped back. “As long as I keep saying No they’ll keep showing up in my head, at some point they’re going to come at the same time and who knows what they’ll do, at least with Gabriel there they have to listen and I can wake up.” They stared each other down until Dean turned to Gabriel.

“You’re sure you can pull him out.”

“I’ll be physically connected to his body and have access to his soul. Once we’re in we’ll all be equal but I can wake him up at any time.” There was only a minor note of irritation in the Archangel's voice and Dean scowled at him.

“I’m coming with you.”

“What? No. Dean-” Sam startled.

“I’m not letting you have the apocalypse in your frigging head.” Dean whirled round to look at him. “I’ll just take a shot of dream root and we’ll be good to go.”

“What if they do something to you?” Sam stood up and gestured at him.

“You heard Shortstop.” He nodded at Gabriel who looked way too offended at the nickname. “We’ll all be equal. Besides, I want to punch them in their smug faces for all the shit they’ve put us through.” Sam swallowed before nodding.

“Okay.” He paused. “But they don’t really need to be punched.”

“They really do.” Gabriel said.

“Okay.” Sam clapped his hands together. “When are we doing this?”

“As soon as you can get Cassie here to guard our bodies from anyone who might take advantage.” Gabriel replied and they both turned to look at Dean. He rolled his eyes then closed them and turned away from his audience.

“Hey, Cas. I know you’re busy but we’ve found a solution to our little problem and need your help so if you could swing your ass by that would be great. We’re in Green River, Utah.” There was the sound of wing beats then Cas’s voice next to him.

“Michael and Lucifer are not a little problem.”

“Hey Cas.” Dean grinned at him. Behind him Gabriel coughed loudly then yelped.

“What is your plan?” Cas asked.

“We’re going to go into Sam’s head and get them to recognise that they can’t take him as a vessel and that the apocalypse is off. We need you to stand guard.” Cas nodded sagely.

“I understand.” They stood there for another minute, Cas’s blue eyes trapping Deans own and staring into his very soul.

“Right.” Dean cleared his thought and clapped his hands together. “I’ll go get the dream root.” He nodded at Sam and left for the Impala. When he came back Sam was lying on his bed looking nervously at Gabriel sitting on a chair between the beds. Dean quickly mixed the dream root and took the offered hair from Sam before downing it. He grimaced at the taste and walked over to his bed. It was a little weird removing his shoes and lying down while being watched by an Archangel, but he didn’t let it show.

Once he was settled, he checked Cas standing at the door like a sentry and Sam lying on his back avoiding everybody’s eyes. He steeled his resolve and looked up at Gabriel who was watching them with a grin and nodded.

“Go for it.” He closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing. A minute later he felt Gabriel’s fingers on his forehead, slightly warmer than a humans. They stayed there for a moment then he removed them, Dean waited another beat before opening his eyes to stare at the same ceiling he’d seen before he’d closed them. He sat up and stared around the motel room.

“You were supposed to put us to sleep.” He snapped at Gabriel. Gabriel snorted and stood, brushing invisible dust from his trousers.

“You are asleep dumbass.” He marched over to the kitchenette and materialised a bowel of what looked like skittles on the side. Dean looked at the lack of Castiel by the door then at Sam where he was standing up and stepping away from the bed.

“You dream about motel rooms?” He asked incredulously. “Man, you’re boring.” Sam shot him a bitchface then his head snapped to his left. Dean followed his gaze and saw a man materialise in the space next to Sam. He only came up to Sam’s shoulder and had black hair that curled around his face and a small beard, his face had sharp angles that matched his wide shoulders and his hands were calloused and held loosely by his side. He was dressed in loose cotton clothes, white shirt and black trousers, and old boots. He stood loosely, more like Gabriel than the other angels Dean’d met, but still had the solid stance of a solider.

“Sam.” He said smiling up at Sam softly like he was genuinely pleased to see him. “Dean.” He added a little more sharply, glancing over to him. The contrast allowed Dean to easily spot the doe eyes the angel gave his brother when he looked back at him.

“Michael.” Sam answered, smiling shyly and Deans thoughts screeched to a stop. He hadn’t expected Michael to be so normal or Sam to be so comfortable with him or for them to be flirting. Considering Gabriel looked at Michael’s back like one of the candy’s he’d just eaten was more sour than he expected he probably felt the same way.

“What’s going on?” Michael asked Sam, reaching out and placing a comforting hand on his arm.

“I could ask you the same question Brother.” Came a cold voice from behind Dean and he practically jumped off the bed in an effort to stand up. The new man, Lucifer presumably, was an inch or so taller than Dean and had blond hair, he also had a beard and was dressed in jeans, t-shirt and over shirt all of varying faded blue shades. He again held himself in an unangelic air like his brothers but this time was coiled with fury that blazed through his piercing blue eyes as he stared at Michael. Dean stumbled back away from the Devil and looked back at Sam and Michael to see that Michael had stepped in front of Sam, his own piercing blue eyes narrowed as he stared back at his brother. Sam stepped around Michael and shot Lucifer a small grin.

“Lucifer.” He greeted and Lucifer nodded back, eyes flickering over to him and softening. What had Sam got himself involved in?

“Sam.” Lucifer replied, tone almost an exact match to Michael’s earlier before it turned cold again as he addressed the other Archangel. “What are you doing here Michael?” Lucifer spat the name like it was a curse.

“What am _I_ doing here?” Michael repeated incredulously. “What are _you_ doing here?” Lucifer scoffed. “What are you doing influencing the mind of my True-” Michael cut himself off with a small chocking noise, his eyes widening as he presumably found the True Vessel connection, or whatever bullshit the angel’s wanted to call it, that lead to Lucifer. From Lucifer’s sharp intake of breath next to Dean he’d found Michael’s link.

It was then that Gabriel decided to let himself be known through the median of slow sarcastic clapping. Michael and Lucifer’s heads both snapped around to glare at him until they realised who he was then Michael jerked back like he’d been given an electric shock and fell into Sam who caught him automatically. Lucifer had the opposite reaction and took several stumbling steps forward reaching out with him arms as if he wanted to grab Gabriel before he seemingly remembered where he was and snapped up straight.

“Gabriel.” He breathed. Dean glanced over at Sam to see how he was taking everything and saw him twisting worriedly between the two Archangel’s like he wasn’t sure which to comfort first.

“You’re okay.” Michael added, standing straight and staring at Gabriel like was going to vanish into thin air. Gabriel shifted under the attention and shoved a handful of skittles into his mouth.

“You haven’t seen each other in millennia, and you want to talk about me?” Gabriel scoffed when he finished eating. “How about we talk about the elephant in the room? There’s no avoiding now that Sam’s both your True Vessel’s.”

“I haven’t seen you in almost as long.” Lucifer countered.

“I thought you were dead.” Michael stepped forward so that he was standing level with Lucifer, only the bed between them. “We thought you were dead. We mourned you.” It was Dean’s turn to scoff then and all three Archangel’s turned to him.

“Since when do either of you dicks care about your family?” He glared at them. “You want to kill each other for God’s sake, and you don’t care who you’ll hurt to do so.” Michael made an outraged noise.

“That’s not true. I’m going to kill Lucifer because it’s my destiny and-”

“How’s destiny working out for you?” Dean sneered at him. “You needed two meatsuits to fight to the death for your destiny and that’s not happening is it? You’re just using it as an excuse to avoid thinking about how much you’re hurting everybody you care about, either that or you don’t care.”

“I care.” Michael snapped back. “Of course I care, you know that?” He turned back to Gabriel who was intently studying the bowl of skittles like he’d rather be anywhere else. He could pinpoint the exact moment that Michael realised that no Gabriel did not know that because his face broke. “Oh Gabriel.” Michael pushed passed Lucifer who was staring between Dean, Gabriel and Sam with something like hurt in his eyes, and pulled Gabriel into a hug pulling Gabriel’s head into his chest and wrapping him in his arms like he never wanted to let go. They stood for a moment then Gabriel relaxed and the dream shuddered slightly, everything started to fade and blur together until Lucifer snapped his fingers and it sharpened back with a few extra points.

Dean gaped as surrounding each Archangel were three sets of massive wings. Gabriel’s and Michael’s were wrapped up in each other’s until he couldn’t see whose were whose, their golden halo’s blurring together into the mess of bright red, dark blue, silver, orange and yellow feathers entwined with tiny golden bones. Dean switched his gaze over to Satan to see his own three wings of bright and dark red and light blue, except instead of golden bone and halo his bones were a dark purple and his halo a sickly yellow full of purple cracks.

Dean removed his gaze from the Archangels when Lucifer turned to look at him and looked over at Sam instead, gasping at the soft red that emitted from his brothers body that slowly turned to blue and then a bright green in the centre of his chest. It took him a moment to realise that he was seeing his soul and another to process it. From the way Sam was staring at him he could see Dean’s soul, Dean rubbed his hand over his leg nervously knowing that after Hell he was nowhere near as bright as Sammy was and afraid to check for more than the soft orange glow he could see out the corner of his eye now he was trying not to look.

“Okay. Chick flick time over.” Dean cleared his throat and turned back to the Archangel’s. “You need to cancel the apocalypse.” Michael and Gabriel parted reluctantly although they still stood next to each other, wings brushing against each other.

“It’s not that simple.” Michael said and Lucifer snorted.

“Of course it’s not. It’s not like you just need to tell the brats to back off and flutter off back home. Must be terrible for you not being able to kill me.”

“Oh and how are your demons doing?” Michael snapped back. “All you’ve got to do is tell them to stop attacking humanity and causing chaos.”

“Oh because you care about humanity, you just want an excuse.”

“You are not a victim!” Michael yelled and Gabriel stepped back towards Sam and behind Deans fear that yes the apocalypse was happening inside Sam’s head he noticed that Gabriel’s wings held the silver, red and yellow feathers while Michael’s had the blue, red and orange ones.

“And you are not blameless!” Lucifer yelled back. The ground started to shake and out of the corner of his eye Dean could see Sam grab his head and collapse to the floor, Gabriel dropped down next to him and grabbed shoulders before raising his hand to snap, eyes wide. Dean knew that this wasn’t going to go away though, Sam had been right when he said that eventually Michael and Lucifer would meet back in his head and now they knew about each other it was more likely. Leaving would just delay the problem and make next time hurt more.

So he did what was the stupidest thing he’d ever done.

He jumped between two arguing Archangel’s and shoved them away from each other.

“Hey.” He yelled at them and they shut up in surprise. “You’re hurting Sam.” It was the only thing he could think of to get them to stop, especially if what he saw a hint of earlier was true. They both turned to look at where Sam was curled up trying to bury himself in Gabriel’s feathers. “And you wonder why Gabriel knows you don’t care about him.”

“Dean!” Gabriel snapped and it took him half a moment to realise that it was in fear for him because he was currently at ground zero. Seeing as the probability of his death had just increased to 100% Dean decided that he was going to go all out. He squared his shoulders and looked between Michael and Lucifer.

“You’re overlooking in your quest to kill each other that the apocalypse is you two fighting and destroying the planet. All you have to do is not kill each other and destroy the planet. If you both back down most of your army’s will back down with you. Or at least take your bullshit to another planet. You obviously don’t care about anybody but yourselves but I care about humanity and Sam cares about humanity and as long as you’re trying to destroy it you’ll never get a fucking meatsuit to go through with your crazy genocidal plans.” Dean hurled the words at them like they could physically hurt.

“That’s not how this works.” Lucifer snarled. “Angels-”

“I don’t care about the angels!” Dean cried. “And since the angels want us to all burn I guess we’re even. If you want to kill each other fine go for it, but you don’t get to go through every other living thing in this universe to do so. We’ve already proven that destiny is a load of shit, the only reason you have to go through with killing each other now is because you want to, because you’ve decided that nothing in the universe matters as much as you and your fucking revenge mission but you don’t get Sam to do it. I’m not going to let you take his body to destroy him without a care for his mind or soul just because Daddy left you alone and you want to destroy His toys.” There was a moment of silence after his little speech and Dean waited for one of them to get tired of trying to be nice and just kill him.

“That’s not how True Vessels work.” Michael said finally when it looked like Lucifer was too busy trying to murder Dean with his eyes to reply, focusing on the bit that he could change. Typical angel. “That’s not even how normal vessels work. It depends on the strength of the soul not the body, that’s why we need consent. Sam isn’t just a convenient body lying around for me to use and abandon without care for how it affects his soul. True Vessels are, for lack of a better term, soulmates and his soul is the most important part.”

“Then prove it.” Sam said softly, looking up for where he was curled up. “You say you’re doing this out of love. Prove it. Call off the apocalypse. Don’t fight each other, tell the angels and the demons to stop causing chaos, go back to normal. I can only be the vessel of one of you so you’re going to have to prove it to me if you want my consent to have my body. Humanity is off limits.” He struggled to his feet with Gabriel’s help. “We all know that you care more about your Dad and yourselves than anybody else, myself and Gabriel included, no matter what you might say otherwise. I care more about humanity than either of you so you’re going to have to decide. How much do you want to kill each other? Because if you decide that it’s the most important thing then we’re going to have to stop you and nobody will be happy.”

They stood in silence as the Archangel’s took in Sam’s words. Dean could see them actually thinking about what he said which surprised him because even though he was sure they had a little crush on Sam (that Sam returned and they were totally having words if they walked out of this alive) he was also sure that they’d disregard it the second it stopped being convenient to them.

“I can’t stop unless Michael stops.” Lucifer said finally. “It’s a matter of self-preservation.” Michael shot him a disgruntled look before nodding.

“I’ll tell them to stop, but I’ll take it back in you also don’t within a day.” He offered.

“Okay.” Lucifer obviously hadn’t been expecting the offer. There was another moment of silence as they all stared at each other. Dean was pretty sure now that he wasn’t going to die and that that there was a real possibility of the planet getting out of this mostly unscratched.

“I’ll go give that order.” Michael said finally. “But can I speak to you all privately soon?” He stared at Gabriel as he said it and the Archangel’s face twisted but he nodded and Michael let out a relived sigh. “Okay. Okay. I love you all.” He blurted out abruptly then raised his wings and with a flap, that Dean could actually see this time not just hear, vanished. Lucifer stared at the space he had just occupied before turning to Sam and Gabriel.

“I still hate humanity.” He stated then hesitated before continuing. “But I’ll think about what you said. And Gabriel?” He looked at his brother. “I missed you.” Then he too also vanished. For a moment nothing happened then Dean burst into laughter and slid down to sit on the chair at the table next to him.

“I can’t believe that worked.” He got out finally.

“Neither can I.” Sam replied grinning at him. “Just never do that again jerk.”

“Bitch.” Dean shot back.

“You guys are crazy.” Gabriel ran a hand through his hair, his wings fluttering behind him. “Who want’s celebratory pizza?” Dean burst out into laughter again.

 


	6. 6th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam tries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again references to the Mark of Cain but Sam doesn't know what's going on so no major spoilers.

****

**6th**

**Sam’s POV**

In retrospect asking two Archangel’s to prove their love to him wasn’t Sam’s best idea. This was due to the fact that angels and archangels especially were made of love and so felt it differently to humans, as had been explained to him by a smirking Gabriel, therefore Sam asking them to prove that they loved him was taken as a challenge. A challenge that they needed to out compete the other in.

This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. True to their word the signs of the apocalypse had slowly died off and demon level returned to its pre-apocalypse level, the angels hadn’t all returned to Heaven but weren’t causing more than the occasional problem, mostly with the demons, so they had counted it as a win. There had been drawbacks, Lucifer hadn’t miraculously got over his hatred for humanity overnight and hadn’t given up one of his pastimes of complaining to Sam about his own species. The same week that the apocalypse had been called off there had been a rise in so called experts claiming that climate change was a hoax, politicians and preachers pushing anti-education and extremist beliefs and generally causing problems for the future. Sam had asked about it the next time Lucifer had shown up and received a lazy smirk in return.

“As much as it pains me to admit it.” Lucifer had started, stretching out on the bed and grinning at Sam’s shifting as he tried to sternly gaze down at the angel spread out below him. “Your brother has a point. The only thing pushing Michael and I to fight is each other, I don’t want to kill him but as long as he’s determined to protect humanity from me we’ll have to. The Mud Monkey’s aren’t worth killing Michael and losing you and Gabriel.”

“I’m a Mud Monkey.” Sam reminded him and Lucifer scoffed.

“You’re one in a hundred billion. Just because the human race made one good human doesn’t mean that humanity as a whole is worth saving.” Lucifer rolled his eyes and out of the corner of his eye Sam could see his wings puffing up like he was a stray cat wanting food but not willing to accept it.

“But it took from the beginning of human history until now for me to be born and that wouldn’t have happened without the hundred billion humans before me.” Sam sometimes wondered where he gained the patience to deal with archangels and if it came as part of the True Vessel package because he didn’t understand how they hadn’t driven him mad.

“Which I took into consideration when deciding if they were worth killing Michael and decided that they weren’t. One in a hundred billion however proves I’m right and that humanity isn’t worth it, just because I’m not actively destroying the stain upon the Earth they bring doesn’t mean I can’t help them make themselves extinct and honestly the way humanity is going I won’t have to do much.” Lucifer smiled like he was doing Sam a great service and Sam swallowed down the horror that threatened to bubble up his throat and the vastness of the Archangel that made him dizzy whenever Lucifer spoke like the eradication of an entire species was nothing, not that humanity was much better but Sam felt there was a personal difference between humans and tigers. Instead he focused on the small things that showed that Lucifer at least cared more about his brother than he pretended, the little spasm in his little finger whenever he mentioned killing Michael, the empty tone he used when he thought about it too much, because he didn’t know what he’d do if this person he was supposed to perfectly mirror could so callously murder his older brother.

“But you’re not going to destroy humanity.” Sam pushed and Lucifer rolled his eyes before sitting up and taking his hand, threading their fingers together.

“No Sam.” He stared into his eyes to convey how serious he was. “For you and for my brothers I won’t destroy humanity.” At Sam’s tentative nod he smirked and tugged them closer together. “Now let me show you how much better at wooing I am than my brother.” Sam let out the laughter that bubbled up his chest.

Michael wasn’t much better, he mostly left Sam’s dreams to Lucifer and concentrated his efforts on proving his love in the real world. This ranged from using his considerable power over Heaven to get the angels to at least clean up the apocalypse mess, this usually ended with a bigger problem than they started with and after the first few times he’d thankfully stopped. Afterwards, he’d moved onto using his religious influence to sue for World Peace, three visits to religious leaders later and a lot more people were pushing for peaceful religious interaction a lot more loudly, adding to the din Lucifer had created with his final anti-human push. Apocalypse averted on both sides Michael had also turned to proving to Sam that he was better at wooing than his brother.

He did this the more traditional way of sending lots of gifts, from rare books to fine wine to powerful or unique weapons, and love letters and poems. The gifts and the letters weren’t the problem; indeed the gifts came in handy very often and the poems were very good, better than excepted from God’s first eternal solider. The problem came with the location of the gifts and letters. As Sam and Dean moved around so much and with the rib warding’s in place Michael couldn’t find Sam to give him his gifts in person so had sent them to the one place he knew Sam would visit sooner or later.

Bobby’s house.

While Bobby was delighted they’d stopped the apocalypse ‘through the power of love’, and Sam had had to endure several grilling talks from both him and Dean about keeping his secret Archangel boyfriends secret and falling into the wrong crowd, something Gabriel just happened to be around for, he was less pleased that his house was becoming a drop off point for ‘lovesick romancing archangel Idjits’. The simplest solution to this turned out to be the easiest; they stayed at Bobby’s and Sam prayed and told Michael to stop sending so many gifts at once because 43 bottles of 1700’s French wine was a little too much even for three hunters who weren’t strangers to alcohol.

The problems, however, came when Michael finished whatever it was he was doing in Heaven and came down to visit Sam’s dreams. They had a few times alone but inadvertently whenever Michael visited Lucifer also visited and as much as they loved each other and as much as they cared about Sam they couldn’t just get over a human history worth of issues with each other.

Which is how Sam ended up lying on a king-sized bed, his arm over his face trying to block out the sound of two Archangels spitting insults at each other. Since Sam had banned any big important topics unless they were actually going to talk to each other the first time they’d shown up at once they had started arguing about which of them was better qualified in taking care of Sam based on the most inane, banal thing they could think of at the time.

This week being fruit.

“The orange in vastly superior to the apple; it contains more vitamins, minerals and fibre as well as calories which are very important to Sam in his job as a hunter as he needs to be as healthy as possible.” Michael stated firmly, pacing along and end of the bed where Lucifer was sitting with his arms crossed.

“Healthiness is important but not everything.” Lucifer counter-argued. “For humans taste and convenience are also important and are something the apple wins hands down, it’s easy to carry and has minimal waste which is good for the environment as you can eat more of it. It’s bigger and more filling and taste wise, well even Dad can agree with me there or He wouldn’t have made the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge an apple.”

“Okay!” Sam interrupted loudly, sitting up, because nothing got Michael riled up like bringing up God in conversation. “We get it, you both want what’s best for me. Maybe the best person to decide what’s best for me is me.”

“What fruit do you think is better then?” Lucifer asked snidely.

“Grapefruit.” Sam retorted and both Archangels made the same face before humming in acquiescence then promptly looked at each other in horror. “You do both know you love each other right?” Sam snapped, gaining their attention again. “Because the way you act it’s like you’re waiting for the other to stab you in the back the moment I look away so you can keep me all to yourself.”

“It’s not like it wouldn’t be the first time.” Lucifer said testily. Michael snorted.

“You stabbed me in the back first.”

“You didn’t listen to me!”

“You didn’t say anything worth listening to!” There was a moment’s pause when Michael realised what he just said and span around to face away from his brother. Sam couldn’t see Lucifer’s face but if Michael’s expression was anything to go by it was bad. “I couldn’t tell where you ended and the Mark began, anything you said was meaningless.”

“Then you should have helped me.” Lucifer’s voice was so quiet that Sam sitting just behind him could barely hear him.

“You don’t think I don’t know that? You don’t think I regret not doing anything until it was too late? You don’t think I blame myself for not noticing earlier?” Lucifer stood up slowly and hovered behind Michael like he wasn’t sure what to do with his hands.

“I was hiding it. I don’t blame you for not noticing until then, nobody else did.” Lucifer hesitated and gave Sam a panicked look. Sam gave him a 'go on' motion with his hands because they might have finally made a break through and no way was Sam letting them stop. “I’m sorry for hiding it and letting it get so bad.” Michael’s shoulders slumped and he turned back to Lucifer incredulously like he’d never heard him apologise before. Sam wondered for a moment if he ever had.

“I’m sorry for not doing anything when I realised.” Michael swallowed. “And I’m sorry that it happened in the first place.” Lucifer made a choked off noise before pulling his brother into a hug.

Sam sat behind them dumbfounded because after weeks of arguing, months of horror stories about arguments between them from angels and demons alike and millennia of estrangement between the two he hadn’t expected it to be that easy.

“You’re an idiot.” Lucifer whispered.

“I will break your face.” Michael hissed back and Sam sighed. They both turned to look at him, then each other then they parted and walked around the bed to sit either side of him. “We owe you an apology too Sam, we should not have used you in our fight against each other.”

“It probably didn’t make you feel very close to either of us.” Lucifer added. Sam looked between the two of them before nodding, honesty seemed like the best choice.

“It wasn’t very nice.” He said gently. “But you needed to focus on each other, I can understand that. I do it with Dean.” He smiled.

“Yes, but we shouldn’t have done it over you.” Michael threaded their fingers together and smiled at him, for a second his wings were visible as they arched outwards and shifted to pull him into an approximation of a hug. Even when they vanished Sam could still feel the warmth that threaded through his soul and made him relax, a second later he was melting into the embrace as Lucifer joined him and something in him just clicked.

“Made for each other.” Lucifer breathed by his ear. “That’s a soulbond you’re feeling there Sammy.”

“The feeling of being complete.” Michael hummed. “I suppose that if you won’t choose between us, I know you couldn’t.” He brushed a hair out of Sam’s face to see his sheepish expression better and smiled. “Then we can share.” Lucifer made a noise.

“At once?”

“No. Not at once.” Michael sounded exasperated. “We can time share.”

“What? I get Monday through Thursday and you get Friday to Sunday.”

“Lucifer.”

“I find that very unfair, we won’t get to see each other much due to our duties and Sam’s hunting.”

“Lucifer.”

“Also, you’re not taking Dean into consideration-.”

“Lucifer!”

“What?” Lucifer snapped back.

“If we visit Sam when we are able and if we see each other away from Sam and talk about our issues, then we should be able to fall into a system that works for all of us.” Michael explained patiently.

“You don’t have a vessel.” Lucifer pointed out. “Mine is falling to pieces.”

“Isn’t being a vessel the original reason you’re here anyway?” Sam blinked back the haze that filled his mind since the Archangel’s had, for lack of a better term, started hugging him. Sam wouldn’t deny that having his body stolen again was still a definite fear and was something that was going to come up a lot because really it was half his worth to these Archangels and as much as he cared about them there was a very real possibility that they only cared for him as long as a vessel was in the equation. It was one of the reasons he was glad that he had to choose between the two, his poor judgement skills had time to be honed and he could ask Dean. “You can’t be on Earth without one.”

“We can ask Gabriel about his strengthening of the one he’s got.” Michael had obviously been thinking about it. “It would only be a temporary fix, but it would give us time for a long term system and in the end it won’t make a difference if we’re all in Heaven and Sam can just give permission to use his body when we need to come to Earth. We just need to wait his lifetime out at minimum.” They stared at him and Michael shifted under their gaze.

“Sounds good.” Lucifer kept his tone neutral. “Except I can’t go to Heaven.”

“You can if I let you in.” Michael seemed very interested in Sam’s hair suddenly. “I cast you out so I can accept you back. If we come to agreement in our talks away from Sam.”

“This sounds like the best idea.” Sam said before Lucifer could formulate whatever was on the tip of his tongue. “Temporary fix to see where this goes.” Lucifer looked down at him and softened.

“Okay.” He agreed. “Okay. Beside’s you’re worth it.” He leant down and kissed his forehead.

“Definitely.” Michael agreed, kissing his cheek. “We can work on your self-worth next because Samuel you are worth all of this.”

“What?” Sam sat up a little straighter.

“It’s written all over your soul.” Lucifer said softly. “Don’t worry we’re going to make you feel better even if it takes the rest of your very long life.”

“That goes for you to.” Sam made eye contact with both of them. “And at some point you’re going to have to tell me about this mark.”

Lucifer laughed then he pulled Sam towards him and did something with his wings so that Sam was half draped over him allowing Michael to shift so that he was covering Sam and Sam ended up in a cocoon between them.

It was a position they were in three months later when Dean came into their motel room with dinner rolling his eyes at their unexpected guests and collapsing on his own bed.

“You guys are unbelievable.” He muttered. “Don’t have sex when I’m here.” Sam could almost see his bright orange and red soul light up at the sight of Sam safe and happy behind his green eyes.

“Of course not.” Lucifer replied primly. “Gabriel’s coming over, he said something about Lord of the Rings Extended Edition.” Dean groaned and Sam laughed into Lucifer’s chest, Michael paused his drawing of Enochian along his back to kiss him softly and Sam relaxed into the hold of his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being more about Michael and Lucifer than Sam but they really needed to talk. 
> 
> So this is the end. Most things tied up in a little bow and fluff to show where it's going. As this is still shorter than I planed there will be sequels focusing on events and outtakes etc. because I really need more of this but here's the main part. You can use your imagination for the rest.
> 
> Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this. ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so I've decided that I'm going to write daily this year and post a chapter of something every Saturday, so by the end of the year I will have written 52 chapters. Since I'm terrible at getting motivation you get the one thing with a prewritten chapter and a promise that the rest will be done because yes I will actually do this it's only been 5 days. Either way next Saturday there will be something.


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